The Drums of Inuzuka
by Prospero Hibiki
Summary: Konoha rises and Konoha falls. The heartbeat of the Hidden Village of the Leaf matches those who play the drums of war. A Naruto Alternate Universe that will question everything you think you know about what it means to be strong.


Title: The Drums of Inuzuka

Author: Prospero Hibiki

Disclaimer: The characters of the Naruto series do not belong to me. Kishimoto does however own them. In no way are these characters being used for my own personal profit, and this is not meant as an infringement of the copyright owned by any of the people who can legitimately lay claim to them.

Rating: M as always, even though I REALLY don't foresee it ever getting into that rating for anything other than bad language.

Timeline: I'm pretty much rewriting most of the series from before the founding of Konoha itself although you won't actually SEE it. Let it be known though that for every page of writing you see there is at least a page of plotting/background that you don't.

Spoilers: Naruto pre-timeskip

Classification: Definite Alternate Universe

Summary: Konoha rises and Konoha falls. The heartbeat of the Hidden Village of the Leaf matches those who play the drums of war. The Drums of Inuzuka.

Author's Comments: This is quite possibly the most unique idea I've seen in the Naruto fanfiction universe. And I'm not just saying that because it's my idea. I honestly haven't come across anything like it at all. And I've looked. The inspirations for this have been many and varied. Remembered random quotes from friends during fencing years ago. ("It's not a REAL war unless someone's playing the pipes.") The hard pulsing drum beats of the old Initial D soundtracks.

The Drums of Inuzuka:

Prologue

Fairytales

"Mom, can you tell me the story about Daddy's drum again?" Inuzuka Hana was practically bouncing in her place on the couch. Tsume smiled at her five year old daughter who despite hearing the story countless times before never seemed to tire of it. Never did she let on that the retelling of the story was painful to her, and indeed the retellings were slowly allowing Tsume's pain from the year before go away.

"I don't know Hana, have you been a good girl today?" Seeing the girl nod, and despite knowing the truth of the trouble she'd managed to get into that day, Tsume decided to tell the story again.

"Listen closely and I will tell you the story of one the greatest drums the Inuzuka have ever made. The drum so powerful that it turned the tide of a battle that no one thought we could win. This is the story of Inuzuka Kuniku and the drum that he started to make and I completed. This is the story of the Drum of Heroes."

As she did every time, Hana sat utterly still and quiet as if the story would affect the rest of her life and she needed to hear every part of it perfectly. Tsume herself stood in front of the couch the lighting from the room cast part of her face in shadow.

"It was only a few weeks after your brother was born and I was still recovering. That's when the Kyuubi attacked. A demon fox with nine tails some called him a monster, but he wasn't. He was so much more than a monster. He was a force of nature that threatened to wipe out everything before him. And our village was in his path. I still remember where your father and I were when we first heard the news. The workshop was warm because of the fire that Kuniku liked to have burning while he worked on the drums. The basic shape of the drum was complete having been finished earlier that morning. He was smoothing out the insides with sand from the heart of Wind country when the messenger ran in. We knew right away that the news was bad because none would be foolish enough to interrupt your father while he was in the workshop except under the direst circumstances."

"Your father of course insisted on joining those who were attacking the beast. I wanted to go myself but I was still We knew it was dangerous, but we were confident that we could defeat it. Too confident really. The success of our ninja in the Great Shinobi War had made us arrogant. We truly didn't understand the damage that one of the tailed beasts could unleash in such a short period of time. That was our downfall."

"Your father had taken Kuromaru with him. When he arrived he saw the bodies of fellow Leaf ninja and immediately knew. He knew he wasn't going to be able to come back to us so he rallied the ninja a few miles closer to the village and set up what has to have been the biggest genjustu trap ever. It wasn't enough though. The Kyuubi refused to set it off. Which is when your father's second plan came into effect. The most powerful ninjutsu attack of every ninja not participating in the trap was fired into the demon's left ear. It was furious. It ran straight for the ninja and into the trap. Unfortunately its tails were still able to move and crashed through the ranks of the ninja. Kuromaru managed to carry your father back home on his back despite his own injuries and his missing eye. He died in my arms without ever waking up."

Tsume and Hana both had tears in their eyes by this point. This was the saddest part of the story and it was even more tragic because it was true. Hana's only memory of that day was of her mother screaming at the top of her lungs in grief and being quickly joined by all of the dogs in the Inuzuka compound.

"I was – not allowed - to join in the second wave of ninja to attack the beast. Instead I locked myself into the workshop in order to finish the drum. I worked straight through the entire two days that the Kyuubi was trapped in the genjutsu that the adults of the Yuuhi clan gave their lives to maintain. They had been commanded to release the illusion when their reserves lowered to dangerous levels and then retreat. To the last one they refused. People say that the Kyuubi's screams of agony and rage echoed throughout the ninja world."

Tsume took a deep breath here as she did every time she told this story as if this particular part was especially difficult to tell. "For two days I sanded and carved the seals needed to truly complete the drum. Every bit of chakra I had was poured into the drum and it absorbed it like a sponge. I sent several of the younger dogs with messages to allied clans asking for injured shinobi to help me. I expected one or two. They came by the dozens. Some walked under their own power, lacking an arm or hand with which to fight. Some were carried by their children or elders unable to walk due to infirmity or missing limbs. They say that old Morino Shuji crawled across half the village using only his arms until he was found by some Hyuuga who carried him the rest of the way. They all came for one purpose. To lend chakra to the drum."

"I carved seals on for what seemed like forever, not even noticing as one person's hand on my shoulder was replaced by another and another and another. And finally I finished it. I walked carrying the drum to the compound's tower and up the winding steps. I set the drum down and I began to play." Tsume was looking out the window at this point as she always did. Hana could hardly wait until her mother began the next part of the story.

"The first drum beat echoed through the village and some say it could be heard in every village across the continent. It was strong and penetrating and uplifting and joyous. Thousands upon thousands of drumbeats filled the air for this was a true spirit drum being played. All the ninja who heard it felt stronger and energized. For a brief moment the battle turned. The fox was nearly halted. I continued to play for several hours as the demon's was slowed to a near crawl. And then we felt it vanish. The malevolent chakra we'd been feeling weigh down on us was suddenly gone. The drums slowly faded away until the only beat heard was the steady thumping of the original drum. The Kyuubi had been defeated but at a terrible cost. The Fourth Hokage had given his very life so that the demon could be defeated."

"We lost so many ninja in so few days. Your father, the Yuuhi, the Fourth, and so many others. But they died heroes. And that is why your father's drum is named the Drum of Heroes." Tsume looked down at Hana and found her asleep. Smiling at her daughter she picked her up and took her up to her room. Laying her gently on the bed Tsume stepped out and shut the door behind her. She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen and grabbed the nearest bottle of sake and took a drink. She always needed one after telling that story. If only to get the foul taste out of her mouth.

It was indeed a nice story. A heroic tale told like all fairytales. And like all fairytales it was a lie. Oh, there were certainly pieces of truth in it. The early parts were completely true. But the rest... The rest was mostly lies.

The Inuzuka spirit drums were their clan's greatest gift the reason for their clan. Their companionship with dogs had come later in response to a need for protectors. But it was the drums that were important. It had been said throughout the ninja world that an Inuzuka with a drum was worth a hundred ninja and two were worth a thousand. It was the drums that had allowed the First and Second Hokages to carve out a place for the new village of Konoha to be built, for all who stood against them fled when they faced the legendary Thirty Drummers whose drums controlled the very elements themselves. But with every gift came a curse.

Tsume wasn't supposed to live past the playing of the drum. They said that if a drum was made with hate and anger, and played with the intention to cause pain and suffering or played for revenge, that the spirits would listen and comply. But there would be a great cost. Many spirit drummers in their clan's history had done so and none had lived. Their souls were tied to their drums as were all the souls of the first person to play a spirit drum. And when their vengeance was complete their drums broke, and they died.

As Tsume had carved her husband's drum she poured her hate, pain, sorrow, suffering, and vengeance into the drum. It was all that had allowed her to complete it. All that had allowed her to keep breathing. She'd died inside with that unearthly scream and all that remained was her body to realize it. The walk up the tower steps had never seemed so long before. Setting the drum down she faced the door to turn on the light when she realized it was already on. And that's when she heard it. That first uplifting drumbeat. Whirling she looked at the drum and saw it. Hana had been playing in the tower, an out of the way place where she wouldn't bother her mother who was busy in the workshop or get in the way of the many people who'd been coming over the past two days. She played the drum because her father had been teaching her how, and she'd always loved those times. She played for joy, happiness, hope, innocence, and love. She played with all of her heart and the drums responded more powerfully than they had for anyone in recent memory. In doing so she tied her soul to the drum and unknowingly saved her mother's life.

Having no choice now, Tsume joined her daughter in playing the drum in awe at the power flowing through the girl's two tiny hands. Doing so gave her a new sense of joy and a new will to live. They played together like that for hours until finally the beats faded away and only Hana's hands could coax any sound from it at all. A constant thumping beat that it took Tsume a while to figure out. The beating of an infant's heart.

It would be much later that she would discover that when that first beat of the drum occurred at the precise moment one child was drawing his first breath while his mother drew her last. It would be later that Tsume discovered that all the other beats faded away only after the Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi into the belly of a newborn Uzumaki Naruto. It would be later that she discovered that her daughter never remembered a single thing about the night the Kyuubi was defeated and so she hid all evidence of the event.

It was ironic that her daughter's favorite story was in fact her story, and yet completely made up. The Drum of Heroes. It was truly a name of the drum, but it was not the true name. No, the drum had another name. A secret name that no one knew except her. The true name that was in fact carved into the inside of the drum by her husband before his death. It wasn't a long name. Simply two characters that he'd copied onto a sheet of paper for the clan's records and handed to her to file. She'd come across it a few weeks afterwards and stared. Maelstrom. The Drum of the Maelstrom. Or more precisely, the Naruto Drum.


End file.
